I love making brownies and my recipe was a closely guarded one until I decided to share it with all of you lovely people in the first part of MamaBake’s Bake Sale Guide.

However I don’t always have chocolate in the house. Sometimes it’s just an expensive thing to buy (I will not pay $5 for 200g of chocolate, damn it!), or I’ve eaten it all. Yes, just me.

For a long time I made these brownies exclusively instead of chocolate based brownies because I had a cheap and decent source of high quality cocoa powder when I worked as a chef. These brownies tend to be fudgier and chewier than regular brownies and very occasionally gift you with the magical crackly top. They can be made in one saucepan and one baking dish.

This recipe yields about 12-16 brownies depending on the size you cut them. Only use the best cocoa powder you can get for the best flavour.

Ingredients:

140 grams butter

1 cup caster sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup high quality cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

2 eggs

1/3 cup plain flour

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celcius.

In a medium saucepan, add the butter and place the pot on heat.

Melt butter until foaming and starting to brown at the bottom.

Remove from heat and whisk in the caster sugar, brown sugar, salt, vanilla and cocoa powder.

It will start to get thick and grainy. This is meant to happen. Leave it to sit for 5 to 8 minutes until it is warm rather than hot.

Add the eggs one at a time and whisk thoroughly to combine. The mixture will become smooth and silky.

Gently fold through the flour.

Line and grease a 25 x 25 baking dish or equivalent. Scrape the mixture into the pan and spread evenly with a spatula.

Bake for 20-30 minutes or until the centre is set and puffed slightly.

Cool thoroughly before cooling and consuming. Can keep for up to one week or freeze pieces in cling film, foil or a sealed container and keep for a month or two.